CA: So, this is what's been leaked. It's essentially what's called a Notice of Proposed Rule Making. And, so, Tom Wheeler and his office at the FCC has drafted this new rule and in order to put it out publicly, he has to get at least two of his colleagues to support it. And there's a meeting at the FCC scheduled for May 15th, where we expect this measure will be voted on. If it is indeed voted on then, in its current form or some altered form based on what kind of pressure comes to bear in the next few weeks, then it would go out for further public comment. There would probably be a 60- or 90-day period, for the public to weigh in, followed by another 60-day period for people to reply to what others said.
And then ultimately the FCC would make the decision, which could come as soon as late summer. I'll be surprised if it comes before Election Day, but we'll see. That's basically the process. But, I would argue that the next three weeks are absolutely crucial because it's really up to the FCC chair to set the parameters of the debate. And the fact that he had chosen to take this Title 2 broadband reclassification off of the table, effectively, by concocting the rules in this way, I think, is a really big problem.
I think it needs to be part of the discussion if we're going to make these rules, and frankly, it's just also an opportunity. Clearly, the FCC is out-of-touch with Internet users, out-of-touch with the American public. They're spending too much time staring in the faces of these lobbyists, and their old friends from when they were lobbyists. And they need to start hearing from people out all across the country. And they've heard some -- a million people signed a petition in just the two weeks after the court decision came down in January.
But it's very clear that we're going to have to do a lot more than that if we're going to reverse this failed approach and actually get the kind of protections we need. So, if all you can do is sign a petition, I hope you go to freepress.net and do that. If you can pick up the phone and call the FCC, I'm urging the people to do that. You can call your members of Congress. That congressional pressure is really key here. And we've seen some encouraging statements from Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker criticizing the FCC, something that a lot of Democrats on Capitol Hill have been unwilling to do.
DB: Now, this FCC chairman, the former lobbyist, was appointed by Obama?
CA: That's correct.
DB: So, he's a Democrat. And I'm concerned because there's a lot of the liberal television folks, the MSNBC, really spent a lot of time defending Obama, and they've been quite silent on this issue. Are you concerned that Obama and the Democrats are deeply embedded in this process that might undermine net neutrality and this beautiful, free Internet that we, so far, can use for the peoples' benefit?
CA: I'm incredibly concerned because Barack Obama, when he was running back in 2008, pledged to take a back seat to no one on net neutrality. This is an issue he's actually talked about from the Oval Office. That should be all the endorsement that's needed for a Democratic FCC to move forward with good rules, but it hasn't happened.
DB: But, he hired a lobbyist!
CA: That's exactly it, so there's the truth of it. You can look at the decisions he's made. The previous FCC chair was a complete disaster. Julius Genachowski was Wheeler's predecessor. A lot of people, in this town, tried to sell us on the idea that Tom Wheeler -- "he's at the end of his career" and "he's going to be his own man" -- but I think we're seeing evidence to the contrary in this decision.
And I think it is a real concern. These companies have invested heavily in the Democratic Party as well as the Republican Party. But companies like Comcast are huge Democratic supporters. Companies like Comcast own MSNBC, so you have to be pretty brave to tackle these stories over there. And with the exception of Chris Hayes, basically no one has been willing to do this.
When the Comcast merger, that they're trying to push through, got announced, the "Morning Joe Show" had both sides of the debate. They had an executive from Comcast and an executive from Time/Warner.
DB: There's some balance!
CA: There's the fair-and-balanced approach. So I think it's a really big concern and I think it's really problematic that there are a lot of Democratic legislators, there are certainly exceptions to this, but there are plenty who are willing to speak out when it was Republicans making the bad decisions, but who aren't willing to go against members of their own party. And, that's frankly, how we got into this mess.
A little bit of statesmanship, of political wisdom ... just foresight, could have avoided so many of these problems, and yet, you know, Capitol Hill has sat back too much, and obviously the corporations are up there, and who's got the most power? These big companies, including the big Internet companies that at one point were very active in pushing for things like net neutrality and now are less active because maybe they figure, "Well, we can probably cut a deal."
DB: And, should it be a concern, for instance, that you've got a news organization like The Washington Post that's now, shall we say, partners with Amazon news content providers, big corporations? This is all a big problem, isn't it?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
